


How The Deaf Boy Fell In Love

by Poorlittleklainer



Category: Glee
Genre: AU, M/M, deaf!Kurt, highschool
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-04-20 07:09:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 15,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14255637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poorlittleklainer/pseuds/Poorlittleklainer
Summary: This is an extended story based off of my one shot How The Deaf Boy Fell in Love





	1. Summer's Here

Kurt was eight when it happened. His mother was driving him home from school, the two of them laughing and singing along to the radio when his world changed forever.

The doctors told his dad it was due to the trauma his ears endured from broken glass. He was lucky the glass didn't sever anything important in his head, they had said. But it all amounted to the same thing, Kurt would never hear again.

And then he found out that his mother had suffered injuries too extensive to fix in surgery, and Kurt would never see his mother again.

Burt didn't have the money for a cochlear implant surgery. His insurance honestly wasn't that good and his shop wasn't doing the best at the time, so he researched other options for his newly deaf son. In his research, he discovered American Sign Language and immediately put both Kurt and himself through lessons in order to give his son access to language. He decided to send Kurt to the state funded school for the deaf, and when Kurt turned nine, he was sent to live in the dorms of the Ohio School for the Deaf.

******

"Did you hear about Mr. Monroe?" Trevor, one of Kurt's best friends at OSD, asked. Kurt shakes his head, walking side by side with him as they headed to the dorms.

"I heard he was fired because everybody kept complaining about his shitty teaching," Trevor states, Kurt raises his eyebrows in surprise.

"Seriously? I thought administration would never fire him. They love him," Kurt signs back. Trevor laughs as they start heading up the stairs to the boys dorms.

"I guess they finally listened to the students," Trevor shrugs, and Kurt waves goodbye to his friend as he reaches his dorm room, unlocking the door and heading inside. Zach, his roommate, had already cleaned out his side of the room for summer, so Kurt was left alone as he quickly packed his clothes and personal items before his dad picked him up for summer.

Kurt jumps in surprise when someone suddenly jumps onto his back, causing him to stumble and nearly crash headfirst onto the floor in front of him. Kurt looks behind him to see Paige, another of his friends, grinning and wrapping her arms around his chest.

"What the hell?" Kurt signs, straining his neck as he looks up at Paige. She just grins, looking down and causing her long black hair to fall around Kurt's face. She laughs as he brushes her hair away from his face, the vibrations of her laughter clearly felt against his back.

"You can't leave me," she signs, pouting as she holds on as Kurt tries to shove her off his back, feeling his clothes wrinkle against his back as she continues to laugh.

"It's summer, it's not like we won't see each other over it!" Kurt signs, still struggling to take the spider monkey off his back. Finally, Paige hops down from Kurt's back, and he straighten to turn and glare at her. Why he is best friends with her, he has no idea at the moment.

"But we live on opposite sides of the state! And you know my family doesn't sign. I should just stay with you, Burt wouldn't mind, he loves me," Paige signs, and Kurt feels the sadness he always gets whenever Paige mentions her family's inability to adapt in order to communicate with her. Paige was raised oral for the majority of her life, until her family moved to Ohio and enrolled her in OSD, where a majority of classes were taught in sign. She learned ASL quickly, and that was now her preferred language. But her parents refused to learn how to sign, which was why she always wanted to go to Kurt's or Trevor's house when the three of them hung out.

"I'm sorry," Kurt states, watching as Paige shrugs.

"It's okay. Only two more years until we are all off to Gallaudet anyways, right?" She states, excitement entering her once again at the thought of them going to Gallaudet University after their senior year together.

"Yeah, after ruling the school as seniors!" Kurt laughs, and a minute later, Kurt watches as his father enters the room. He looks at Paige with amusement.

"I'm pretty sure the administration wouldn't like hearing you're here, Paige," Burt signs. Paige shrugs, not bothered at all by the fact that technically it was against the rules for a girl to be in the boys dorms.

"Yeah, but it's the last day, nobody cares," Paige says. Burt laughs and turns to Kurt, who is closing his suitcase and struggling to zip it because of all the clothes stuffed inside.

"You ready kiddo?" He asks. Kurt nods, pulling the suitcase off his bed and turning to his best friend. The two of them hug, and Kurt watches as Burt takes a suitcase in his hands.

"FaceTime tonight?" Kurt asks. Paige nods and Kurt walks out with Burt as the two of them walk to the administration members overseeing everybody leaving. Kurt hands his dorm key to one of them, watching as they tell him he is good to leave. Kurt spies Trevor with his family, talking rapidly in sign language to his mother. Kurt waves to get his attention, watching as Trevor turns to look at him.

"See you next year," Kurt signs, grinning. Trevor laughs.

"Not if I avoid you," he jokes, watching as Kurt laughs.

"Paige and I are FaceTiming tonight, connect if you can!" Kurt tells him. Trevor nods and Kurt turns to look at Burt, who's standing there with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"What's up?" Kurt asks, seeing his father deep in thought. Burt shrugs it off, stating that he'll tell Kurt later. Kurt nods, grabbing his suitcase and helping his father load everything into the car. Kurt gets into the passenger seat next to his father and they set off back to Lima, heading home. Kurt taps his father's shoulder, getting his attention.

"How's Carole?" Kurt asks, watching as his father quickly glances back to the road after watching what Kurt was signing. He drives with one hand, as he signs.

"She's good. She's still working at the hospital," Burt says. Kurt nods, letting his father focus more on the road than trying to keep up a conversation with Kurt. Kurt taps on his father's shoulder once again a couple minutes later.

"Can Paige come stay over for like a week sometime?" He asks. Burt nods his agreement, and Kurt smiles gladly.

"Yeah, no problem." Burt states. Kurt pulls out his phone and texts Paige the news, and the two of them start to figure out a week that would work well with both of their schedules.

It's not too much longer until Burt is entering their driveway, and Kurt puts his phone away as he parks, heading out and grabbing his suitcases. Burt helps him take them inside, and Kurt looks around the empty house.

"Carole at work?" Kurt asks. Burt nods.

"And Finn's with Rachel," Burt explains. Kurt nods his understanding, and helps his dad take his suitcases upstairs to his room. His dad leaves and Kurt begins the process of unpacking. He hangs up all of his clothes, places his notebooks on his desk for next year, and takes out his pictures of his friend, setting them on his nightstand where they sit until he takes them back to school with him next year.

Kurt grabs a book from his bookshelf, sitting on his bed as he starts reading. He smiles as he thinks of how much fun he is going to have next year. His friends and him have been looking forward to senior year ever since they started high school at OSD, fully ready to be the "top dogs" as Paige jokingly says.

Little does he know, his plans would be completely derailed that year.


	2. Condemned

Kurt went downstairs around seven that night when he felt the faint vibrations of the garage opening, signaling that Carole or Finn must be getting home. He placed his bookmark in and walked downstairs to find Burt hugging Carole. When she sees Kurt, her face brightens despite the obviously tiredness she had after a long day at the hospital, where she worked as a nurse.

"Hey, how are you?" She asks, her sign a little shaky after a couple weeks of not using it and only picking it up last year when she started dating his father seriously. Kurt doesn't get the chance to respond at that moment as she pulls him into a hug. He smiles and wraps his arms around the woman tightly before pulling away.

"I'm good. Happy to be home. I'm also starving. Dad, is dinner going to be ready soon?" Kurt asks, turning to his father, who nods, grabbing Carole's bag from her hands and setting it down on the table for her.

"Yeah, five minutes, ten tops," Burt says. Kurt nods and the three of them head into the living room, where Burt has put on SportsCenter while he cooks in the kitchen. Kurt sits down with Carole, and the two of them begin catching up on each other's lives. Kurt learns that Carole is starting to go through the process of getting more responsibility at the hospital, which she was excited about. He learns that Finn is back together with Rachel, which Kurt hadn't known they were broken up in the first place. He honestly can't be expected to keep track of his stepbrother's rotating love life. Carole asks if Kurt has any love life currently, and he blushes and states that no he does not. By that time, Burt has brought out the chicken leg dish he had cooked, and the three of them begin eating in the living room, continuing to catch up on everything missed.

Kurt laughs as he finishes his story, explaining how Paige and Trevor failed miserably at trying to dance at their last prom, when his Carole lets it slip.

"I hope you guys keep in touch throughout this next year. I like those two," she says. Kurt looks at her, confused. He doesn't understand why Carole would think he would lose touch with his friends, he goes to school with them after all. And the year after that they were all going to go to Gallaudet together.

"What do you mean? I'm not going to lose them, we have a plan for our senior year," Kurt smirks, grinning. His smile disappears though when both Burt and Carole look at each other concerned.

"I haven't told him yet, I was waiting until you and Finn were here," Burt tells Carole, speaking and signing at the same time, which he usually does when he wants to make sure both Kurt and Carole understand perfectly.

"Oh, I didn't realize. That explains why you look so confused, Kurt," Carole looks back at Kurt, who looks between his father and stepmother impatiently. He raises an eyebrow s he continues glancing between the two.

"Well, is somebody going to let me know what's going on?" He asks. Kurt watches as Burt takes a deep breath, setting his silverware down on his plate carefully.

"I think it would be a good idea for you to go to the hearing school here for a year," Burt says. Kurt looks at him, still confused.

"But I don't want to," he states, watching as his father sighs. Kurt quickly continues, his signing becoming more and more frantic as he does. "I'm going to go to OSD with my friends for senior year and then go to Gallaudet for college, right?" Kurt swallows past a sudden dry throat as Burt begins signing.

"I will still happily pay for you to go to Gallaudet, but I think you need to go to a hearing school for one year, because  I don't want you to continuing to be isolated-"

Kurt slams his hand on the table, a little more forcefully than probably necessary to get his father's attention, stopping him mid sign. "But all my friends are at OSD! You are isolating me by making me go to that hearing school, please don't make me," Kurt pleads, looking at his father and then at Carole, who is watching the conversation a little lost, but Kurt gathers that she understands the gist of it based off of Kurt's betrayed facial expressions.

"I think that your father is making a good point, Kurt. And McKinley is a good school, it has a good program for students like you-"

"Oh, you mean students that are 'disabled' right?" Kurt interrupts her angrily. "I know what mainstream is like, Paige and so many others at OSD experienced that and they hated it!" Kurt continues. Burt sighs, his forehead sporting that line that means he's getting stressed.

"Kurt, you haven't experienced it yourself, people experience different things at mainstreams-"

"But mainstream is so different-"

"Kurt, stop interrupting," the stress on Burt's face has given way to anger instead, and Kurt reluctantly sits back in his chair and watches his dad sign. "Now, this is what's going to happen. You will go to McKinley for your senior year. Then, after you graduate, you will go to Washington and go to Gallaudet with your friends. Period," his dad punctuates his sentence with the literal sign for period, something he only does when he is absolutely done talking about this. Kurt feels himself making an angry noise, something that _he_ only does when his emotions are running too high to feel self conscious about the fact that he cannot hear a thing he's saying.

"Why do you hate me?" Kurt signs at his father, standing up from his chair and going to his bedroom, leaving the two of them there as he slams his door (what he's sure must be loudly) hard enough to feel the vibrations of it through the floor. Kurt glares at the doorway, wanting so badly just to yell and scream out his frustration.

A flashing light catches his attention out of the corner of his eye. He turns to see his computer lighting up with a FaceTime request from Paige. He quickly strides over, hitting the accept key. Paige's smiling face takes up the screen, but it immediately falls.

"What's wrong? Why are you crying?" Paige asks, and Kurt reaches up to feel that his cheeks are indeed wet. Another thing that makes him frustrated, Kurt wishes he could be the type of person would could get angry without tears, but it seems like every time he gets pissed, the waterworks start.

"My parents have decided that I'm not going to go to OSD with you next year," Kurt signs, sitting in his desk chair. Paige looks at him confused. "I'm going to be mainstreamed at the hearing school here," Kurt expands. Paige's face morphs from confused to sympathetic and upset.

"Seriously? They are making you change schools your senior year?" She asks. Kurt nods, feeling his eyes well with tears this time.

"I don't understand why they are doing this to me! I mean, my dad didn't even ask me, he just told me that I would be going to McKinley before going to Gallaudet next year," Kurt explains, looking at his compute screen.

"We have all summer, and it's not like you can't come up and visit us on weekends Trevor and I don't go home. You know me, I rarely go unless it's holidays. And we have the next four years of college together, it's not like we will disappear from your life. You are kinda stuck with us," Paige jokes, which makes Kurt smile. But his smile quickly falls as he thinks about the classes he won't have with his friends, the fun and the jokes and the time hanging out in the living area of the dorms together.

"I just can't believe they are forcing me to endure a year of," Kurt struggles to think of the right word, "isolation. I just know that nobody is going to want to be friends with the deaf kid. This is Ohio, we aren't exactly known for our inclusion and progressive thinking," Kurt states. Paige sighs, and gives Kurt a reassuring smile.

"I understand your fears. And from my experience with mainstream, it's going to be hard. But you never know what will happen. Who knows, maybe this year will become the best year of your life," she suggests. Kurt rolls his eyes at her optimism, wonder how she can still be hopeful when he's been condemned to eight months of pure loneliness at school.

"Yeah, and maybe pigs will fly," he signs sarcastically. Paige laughs and rolls her eyes, much like Kurt just did. The two of them continue to talk well into the night, finally logging off with promises of getting together sometime next week.

Kurt sighs as he crawls into bed, choosing to ignore the fact that his life will change in three months. He'll focus on enjoying his summer vacation instead.


	3. Welcome To McKinley

Kurt manages to forget about his upcoming year at a hearing school for the most part. He does what he always does during his summer vacations. He helps his dad out at the garage, he gets back in touch with his sewing machine (which was sadly forced to stay at home as OSD dorms don't allow them), and has Trevor over a lot, as he lives in Columbus. Paige makes her week long visit, driving the three and a half hours down to Lima from her hometown across the state. There, she helped prepare Kurt for his upcoming mainstream experience, which was one of the few times he allowed himself to think about it.

But the time eventually passed, and the dreaded day finally arrived. Kurt woke up his usual two hours early, determined to at least make a good first impression before everyone shuns him for being deaf. He makes sure his hair, which is normally impeccably styled, is flawless. His outfit was chosen the night before, carefully laid out and ironed so it was wrinkle free. Stylish enough to bring out Kurt's uniqueness, but not so much that he would stand out too much.

"Kurt, would you do me a favor and take Finn with you in your car? I have an early morning shift and can't drop you guys off like I was planning to," Carole asks as he headed down for a quick breakfast. Kurt signs back okay, and she smiles thankfully at him as she hurriedly grabs her bag.

"Good luck, you'll do amazing," Carole signs as she walks quickly towards the door. She then signs I love you, and Kurt doesn't get a chance to sign it back before she is out the door. Kurt sighs, grabbing one of his yogurts from the fridge as he waits for Finn to finish getting ready.

The boy runs down the stairs, wearing his red letterman jacket despite the fact that it was going to be at least eighty degrees that day. Kurt says nothing as he grabs his keys, waiting for Finn to look up from grabbing a bagel from the breadbox before signing.

"You ready?" Kurt asks. Finn nods, stuffing the bagel in his mouth before responding. He hasn't quite mastered the art of signing one handed yet, but Kurt is warmed that he at least is trying to communicate in sign so he doesn't mind that it isn't perfect.

"Yeah, I just need to grab my bag from my room," Finn says, turning around and running up the stairs two at a time. Kurt waits a couple moments before he sees Finn running back down the stairs, jumping and skipping the last three. His bag is now slung over his shoulder, and Kurt grabs his keys from the hook on his way out. He sees Finn shout out something, probably a farewell to Burt, out of the corner of his eye.

Finn fiddles with Kurt's radio as he drives, which he leaves off for obvious reasons. At a red light, Finn grabs Kurt's shoulder, giving him the chance to look over at him.

"Your radio's broken," Finn states. Kurt laughs, unable to help it even though his stomach is filled with nerves.

"I didn't know, sorry," he smirks, watching as Finn smacks himself on the forehead. Kurt continues laughing as he looks ahead, seeing the light turn green and he finishes the drive to school quickly. Kurt finds a parking spot pretty close, seeing as the two of them left earlier than they normally will because Kurt needs to meet with the principal before school. Finn helps him navigate through the school, and even though many students aren't there yet, the few that are watch the two of them pass curiously. Kurt can see groups of friends talking with one another, no doubt catching up on things missed since they last saw each other, but Kurt can't make our a word said because they weren't signing.

"Hey man, this is Figgins's office. I have glee club after school, it should be over around four or so," Finn explains, stopping outside of an office with a glass wall. Kurt can see that inside a secretary sat at her desk, while another door in the room led to a smaller office.

"I'll just hang out until you are finished then," Kurt responds, not allowing himself to look and see the other students staring at them, but seeing them anyways. Finn nods and then is quickly running down the hall, slapping another guy's back who was dressed in the same letterman jacket. Kurt turns away from his stepbrother and the other boy and enters the glass walled office. The secretary looks up from her computer at the sight of Kurt opening the door, and she offers him a smile.

"Hi, what can I do for you?" She asks. Kurt points to the principals office, and the lady looks at him confused.

"You want to see Principal Figgins? He has a meeting but I can make you an appointment," the lady looks down so Kurt can't even get her to stop. He reaches for his phone, but luckily doesn't have to continue trying to communicate with the secretary because the principal walks out of his office at that moment.

"Kurt Hummel?" The principal asks. Kurt nods, and he gestures for Kurt to walk inside his office. Kurt doesn't look at the secretary as he passes, instead just shrugging his bag higher on his shoulder and following the principal into his office. Inside, another man sits on one of the two available chairs, and straightens his posture when Kurt and Principal Figgins walk into the room.

"I want to welcome you, Kurt, to William McKinley High School," the principal starts talking, and the other. Man immediately begins signing, interpreting what the principal is saying. "My name is Principal Figgins, and I'm here to make sure you have a smooth transition and nothing goes wrong as you go to school here," the principal keeps talking, things about how his teachers all know he's deaf, that he'll get as much help as he possibly needs. The interpreter does a good job of interpreting everything, and Kurt thinks he could start to like the guy when the meeting is over and Principal Figgins hands him two papers. One with his schedule and another a map of the school.

Kurt thanks the principal and walks out alone, the interpreter stays behind to talk to the principal. Now that time has passed, the hallways are lined with more students than Kurt has ever seen at school before. OSD wasn't a huge school by any means, and this hearing school seemed to be filled with students, a lot of whom seemed to be wearing either a cheerleading uniform or a red letterman jacket. Kurt follows the map to his locker, finding it relatively quickly. He tests the combination, which thankfully works, and closes the empty locker. Then, he allows himself to start walking, looking down at his map and schedule side by side. He thinks that the school is way too confusing, looking at the map one way and then the next, trying to figure out where the hell Mr. Connelly's trigonometry class was.

Kurt was so invested in figuring out where he was going that he wasn't paying attention to where he was walking. He suddenly collides into a solid body, stumbling back in shock. He looks up at who he ran into, and stops. The boy was shorter than Kurt, with black hair slicked back tight against his head by some kind of gel maybe? His skin was that tanned color that made you jealous when you saw it on somebody else but appreciated it at the same time. The boy's soft hazel eyes widen as he looks at Kurt, and starts talking. Kurt misses what he says at first, partly because he was getting way too distracted than he should be by a stranger.

"- must be new. I'm Blaine," the boy finishes, holding out his hand. Kurt smiles and shakes it, showing Blaine his schedule and pointing to his name.

"Kurt?" Blaine asks, glancing from the schedule to Kurt. He nods, and Blaine looks at him confused.

"I don't mean to be rude, but can you not talk or something?" Blaine asks. Kurt feels himself blush slightly, and he points to his ears before shaking his head. Blaine's eyebrows narrow in confusion, but a few seconds later they shoot right back up.

"Are you deaf?" Blaine asks. Kurt nods, and Blaine surprises him with what he does next. He looks deep in thought while he struggles through finger spelling his name, messing up a couple times but Kurt appreciates the thought.

"I learned the alphabet a long time ago and that was probably all wrong, and I bet you are laughing at me right now because I completely screwed up," he trails off, looking down embarrassed, "and here I am babbling like an idiot," Kurt watches Blaine's cheeks redden as he blushes, and Kurt can't help smiling in amusement at him.

"You can understand everything I'm saying right now, right?" Blaine asks, his cheeks growing even more red when Kurt nods and his grin widens. To save him any further embarrassment, Kurt gestures to the first name on his schedule and shrugs his shoulders. 

"You don't know where to go?" Blaine asks. Kurt nods, and Blaine continues, "yeah, this school can be pretty confusing. So what you want to do is go down this hallway," Blaine turns his head away, pointing down the hallway they were currently standing in, and he points to a distant staircase. "Go up those stairs and go down the hallway to the left. It will be the last door on the right," Blaine gestures where Kurt should go by his hands, causing Blaine to grin. Kurt doesn't think when he signs to Blaine thank you, but luckily Blaine's eyes seem to light up in recognition.

"Oh, I remember that one! Thank you, right?" Blaine asks, looking even more excited about getting it right when Kurt nods.

"You're welcome," Blaine states proudly, and Kurt smiles wider as he shows Blaine the sign for you're welcome, bringing his right hand in towards his torso.

"Is that the sign for you're welcome?" Blaine asks. Kurt nods, and Blaine slowly signs it back to him. Kurt smiles and shrugs his messenger bag higher on his shoulder, gesturing that he should go. Blaine nods, and waves goodbye as he continues walking the direction he was before the two of them collided. Kurt walks away towards his class, a slightly blush on his cheeks as he plays back their conversation in his head.


	4. The Hand of Friendship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I apologize about the longer than normal update time. I was playing soccer and got a concussion last week, and wasn't able to get on a computer until a couple days ago. First thing I did was start writing, I promise!

For the most part, Kurt thought his day was going okay. His peers were obviously confused about the presence of the interpreter in his classes, nobody really talked to him much throughout the day. But at the same time, nobody really bothered him either. He spent a lot of time texting both Trevor and Paige throughout the day, both of them asking to be updated on Kurt's life now that he was being mainstreamed.

And that's how it went for the next couple days. Kurt would go to all his classes, pointedly ignoring the curious looks that he was still getting, even after almost a full week of being at McKinley. He sat at lunch alone, texting his friends at OSD whenever he could, and hung out in the library waiting for Finn to finish glee club. It was working pretty well for him so far, but of course, that wasn't going to keep going for very long.

Kurt was sitting at his table during lunch when he noticed several of the boys wearing red letterman jackets heading his way. They walked up, students moving to the side when they saw the group striding from the opposite side of the lunchroom towards Kurt's table. They stop above him, and Kurt looks up from his phone where he was currently texting Trevor. He raises an eyebrow at the middle of the three boys, all three of them cross their arms intimidatingly.

"So, new kid. We have a tradition here at McKinley for new kids," the middle boy speaks. He was flanked by a big black boy to his right who was probably a linebacker or something for the football team based on the sheer size of him. To his left was a slightly less intimidating but not by much boy with biceps that looked bigger than Kurt's face.

"Didn't your mama ever tell you it's rude to ignore people?" The black boy speaks up when Kurt doesn't respond. Kurt glances around him, seeing that the three boys have taken the attention of nearby tables, curious bystanders abandoning their conversations in favor of staring at what was going down.

Kurt's attention is brought back to the three boys by the middle one grabbing his shoulder, causing Kurt to jump and see his pissed off face inches away from his own.

" Hey, we're talking to you," the boy states, and Kurt flinches away. But suddenly, before any more can transpire, Finn is rushing over towards Kurt, followed by another boy in the same letterman jacket these guys were wearing and sporting a mohawk.

"Karofsky, what do you think you're doing?" Kurt sees Finn ask, striding towards the middle boy, Karofsky, and shoving against his chest. Kurt misses Karofsky's reply, but it gets the other two boys laughing. The boy with the mohawk steps forward, and one of the first three boys steps back quickly. Finn says something else, but because his back is facing Kurt, Kurt doesn't know what he says. But whatever it was, it made Karofsky look over at him in surprise, but then he grabs the other two guys and they retreat back to their table on the opposite side of the lunch room.

"Hey, you okay?" Finn turns to him, signing the sentence quickly. Kurt nods, looking between the unknown guy who was still there and back towards Finn.

"This is Puck, he's cool. Those guys didn't hurt you, right?" Finn asks. Kurt sees Puck eyeing their exchange curiously, his head moving back and forth between Finn and Kurt like he was watching the ball at a tennis match.

"No, I'm fine. What did you say to them?" Kurt can't help but ask, his curiosity getting the best of him. Finn smiles, looking over at luck and bumping his shoulder.

"I just said that if they even thought about touching you, Puck here knows some people who don't mind going back to juvie," Finn says. Kurt looks at him confused, asking him to fingerspell that last word again, because there's no way he just said juvie, like juvenile detention, right? But no, Finn signs the same thing, and Kurt looks over at Puck in shock.

"It's nice to meet you, dude. Finn told us you were starting here," Puck states, holding out his hand. Kurt smiles and shakes it, smiling and nodding his head at him. Kurt turns back to Finn.

"Do you want to sit with us for lunch? I usually sit with all the glee kids, but they won't mind you joining us," Finn asks. Kurt smiles warmly, but shakes his head.

"No, it's fine. Lunch is almost over anyways," Kurt signs, watching as Finn nods and he and Puck begin walking back to their table. Kurt gets up and throws the rest of his food away, heading straight for the privacy of the bathroom before he allows himself to freak out about what almost happened.

Kurt remembers Paige's warning about the ignorance of hearing people, about the added ignorance of bullies. People are cruel, she warned. People might pick on you because of your deafness, she had stated. Kurt hadn't really expected that to happen, but after this, Kurt can't help but wonder if what she warned is coming true. Because yeah, those jocks didn't know that Kurt was deaf at first, but he as a fairly positive assumption they will probably know that he is after lunch. And if they just let Kurt go without making some remarks about it, Kurt would be surprised.

Kurt lets himself freak out for a couple more minutes, but then he has to get to class and continue with his day. So he pulls himself together, walks out of the bathroom with as much dignity as he can muster, and heads to continue his day.

Like always, Kurt waits for Finn in the library after school, as he has glee club. Kurt didn't really mind waiting, it gave him a chance to do his homework so that when he got home, he would be free to video chat Trevor and Paige. But when four came, Finn didn't meet him like normal. Kurt waited about ten more minutes, but Finn hadn't shown up yet. So Kurt gathered his things and headed over to the room Finn said glee was in. The door was open, and Kurt could see that people were still practicing, the teacher was leading them through different steps. Kurt watches as the group slowly goes through different steps.

And then the teacher turns around and the club starts dispersing. Finn was busy talking to Rachel, then he noticed Kurt standing outside the room. Kurt watches as Finn says goodbye to Rachel, and then he heads in Kurt's direction.

"Hey, sorry, glee club ran a little longer. We were learning the dance for Sectionals," Finn signs. Kurt smiles and shrugs his shoulders.

"No problem. I was just wondering why you didn't show up at the library," Kurt explains. Finn nods and the two of them start walking towards the student lot. Kurt is walking, but stops around when he sees Finn turning around. Kurt turns with him and stops in surprise when he sees the boy from his first day talking with Finn, holding out Finn's letterman jacket. Kurt missed the first bit of the conversation, but ended up catching when Finn thanked the boy, Kurt thinks his name was Blaine. Blaine then turns to look at Kurt, smiling and Kurt sees the recognition as Blaine looks at him.

"Hey, it's Kurt, right?" Blaine asks. Kurt nods, and Blaine smiles a little wider. Then, he does something that shocks Kurt. He starts (slowly and shakily) signing.

"I know what it's like being the new kid, I was new last year, so I wanted to say if you need someone to help you learn the school, or even just a friend, I'm willing," Blaine says at the same time he signs. Kurt doesn't respond for a moment, too shocked about the fact that Blaine took the time to learn how to sign that so Kurt would know he's making an effort. Blaine's grin just widens as Kurt obviously stands there in shock, but then Kurt has to shake himself out of it.

"Thank you," Kurt signs, knowing that Blaine knows that one. Blaine signs back you're welcome, and they both mirror each other's grins as if it's a little joke between the two of them. Blaine turns to look over his shoulder, and Kurt watches as he yells something, and then turns back to Kurt and Finn.

"See you guys tomorrow," he says, waving goodbye and rushing down the hallway towards a smaller Asian girl. Kurt smiles as he watches Blaine go, and then Finn grabs his shoulder, making him look up at the taller boy.

"Blaine's cool, he asked about you when he learned we were brothers," Finn states. Kurt nods, and the two of them resume walking towards the parking lot.

"He wanted me to help him learn how to sign that," Finn says. Kurt stays silent for a moment, contemplating on why Blaine would go through the effort to become friends with the deaf kid. Finn grabs Kurt's shoulder again, the two of them stopping in the middle of the hallway.

"Blaine's a good guy. You should give him a chance and try to become friends. He wants to," Finn states. Kurt smiles at him, nodding. The two begin walking once again, and they talk about mindless things until they get in the car. All throughout the drive, Kurt can't help thinking about Blaine, the hearing boy who wants to become his friend. Kurt wonders why he wants to go through the effort of learning an entire new language just to communicate with him, wonders what Blaine sees in Kurt that makes him think, _I want to be friends with that kid._

Kurt and Finn get home, and the two of them disappear off to their separate rooms. Kurt falls on his bed, and cues up his Netflix, paying mindless attention to the show.

Because, if he's honest, the thing most on his mind is the cute hearing boy who wants to be his friend.


	5. It's a Start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I apologize for the slow af update. It's crazy right now because I'm graduating high school in a few weeks, so I've been dealing with teachers shoving everything down my throat last minute. I also had really terrible writers block that I'm still trying to get over but I kinda forced this out so sorry if it's not very good. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!!

The next day, Kurt almost forgot about what Finn has said. Kurt didn't see Blaine at all that morning, which was actually normal. But even though Kurt didn't see Blaine, it doesn't mean that he didn't stop thinking about him. It was purely because Kurt couldn't stop thinking about the fact that Blaine wanted to become his friend of course. Definitely not because Kurt thought Blaine was cute.

Okay, he _was_ , but that wasn't what Kurt was thinking about.

However, despite the reassurances that Finn had said, Blaine didn't come up to talk to Kurt at all that next day, or the next, or even the next day. Kurt was getting a little disappointed that about it. He thought that Blaine probably decided that it was best not to make friends with the deaf kid. After all, Kurt thought, Blaine probably said that just to be nice. Finn was probably wrong.

Yeah, that was it. Finn was wrong. He usually is, after all, is what Kurt tries to convince himself. Still, it did kinda suck. Okay, more than kinda. It _really_ sucked. Kurt let himself think that someone in this hellhole wanted to be his friend, and now that Kurt had gotten his hopes up, he finds out that Blaine was just saying that and-

Kurt jumps at his table in the library when a hand is suddenly laid on his shoulder. Kurt's heart nearly stops in fright as Kurt turns around to glare at whoever the fuck thought that it would be a good idea to sneak up and scare the deaf kid when he stops suddenly. Standing there, looking very sorry, was Blaine.

"Hey, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Blaine says. He looks at Kurt, and then gestures towards the chair next to him.

"Is this seat taken?" He asks. Kurt looks at him confused, but then realizes what he asked. Kurt gestures for Blaine to go ahead and take the chair, no doubt because he wants to sit at one of the crowded tables. But why would he ask Kurt to take a chair when there are plenty of empty tables around the library and Blaine could just go grab one of those.

Kurt is again cut out from his thoughts when Blaine pulls up the chair and sits down, smiling shyly at Kurt. He looks down at his hands, and shakily signs to Kurt.

"I was trying to learn how to sign, and it's actually really hard to learn by yourself, and I wanted to get better before I tried to talk to you and become your friend. Finn convinced me that you would just appreciate the effort," Blaine voices along to his signs, his signing choppy and unclear and it would honestly give Kurt a headache trying to read it under normal circumstances. But this was far from normal circumstances. Kurt feels a blush creep up his neck when he thinks about the fact that the reason Blaine didn't talk to him earlier that week was because he was trying to get better before he talked to Kurt. Kurt smiles, and starts slowly signing back to Blaine, hoping he understood enough to understand Kurt's message.

"Finn was right. I don't care that you aren't perfect. I can help you," Kurt signs. Blaine seems to understand because his face lights up and he slowly signs again.

"Really? You'll help me?" Blaine asks. Kurt nods his head once again, and Blaine reaches into his bag to rummage for something, before finally pulling out his cell phone.

"Can you put your number in? That way I can text you when's a good time to get together so you can help me out with ASL?" Blaine asks, not signing this time and speaking quickly. Kurt catches about half of that sentence, but gets the gist when Blaine hands him his phone with an empty contact pulled up. Kurt types his name and number quickly into the phone, handing it back to Blaine with a smile. Blaine looks down, and smiles back at Kurt. He texts something, and seconds later Kurt's phone is flashing in his bag. An unknown number simply says hi, and Kurt quickly adds Blaine's contact information.

"Would you like to get some coffee after school? I have glee but we could go after?" Blaine asks, stumbling over the signs he doesn't know. Kurt sees the pauses in his signing and fills them in, watching Blaine repeat the signs back to him with a small smile. Kurt nods his affirmation, and Blaine's eyes brighten up even more than they already were.

Kurt makes himself ignore the fact that those hazel eyes were probably the prettiest eyes he's ever seen before.

"I noticed you normally eat lunch alone, would you like to eat with Finn and me and some of the other glee kids?" Blaine asks Kurt next. Kurt looks up to see that the people in the library are all packing up their things and leaving, a sign that the bell just rang. Kurt smiles gratefully at the offer, but shakes his head.

"No, thank you. I'm actually FaceTiming with some of my friends from my old school," Kurt explains. Blaine looks confused on a couple of the signs, and Kurt hopes that he brushed up on the alphabet as he fingerspells their meaning. But Kurt seems to understand well enough and nods.

"I guess I'll see you later then?" Blaine asks. Kurt nods, trying not to seem too eager. But Blaine just grins widely, waving goodbye to Kurt and grabbing his bag, walking away. Kurt watches Blaine leave, his own stupid smile not leaving his face.

It was so bad, Trevor and Paige asked who spiked his coffee that morning.


	6. Homesick? Schoolsick? Old-Life-Sick? Whatever, He Just Misses It

With a new school came new challenges, Kurt quickly found out. The coursework was completely different than that he had studied at OSD, several of the topics that teachers expected Kurt to know from previous years hadn't been covered by his teachers at his old school, and several topics they went over in slow, agonizing detail he learned already. However, Kurt slowly caught up and it seemed that midterms were fast approaching.

 

"Hey, do you understand this at all?" Kurt signs to Blaine. The two of them were in Kurt's room, sprawled out on the floor with textbooks from all their various subjects strewn around in a messy and unorganized fashion. Notebooks laid half open all around, and there was a half eaten plate of sandwiches on Kurt's dresser. Blaine, who was currently engrossed in his textbook, doesn't notice Kurt signing. With a sigh, Kurt picks up the nearest pencil and throws it at him. The pencil bounces off of Blaine's arm, making the boy look up in surprise.

 

"I have no clue what is going on here. Help?" Kurt signs. Blaine smiles warmly, nodding as he moves from his spot laid out on his stomach on the floor to sit up against Kurt's bed next to Kurt.

 

"What don't you understand?" Blaine asks slowly. His signing is steadily getting better, but most of the time Kurt still relies on lip reading the majority of their conversations while Blaine shakily signs the words he knows. Granted, Kurt still helps Blaine out all the time with his ASL, but there's only so much one can teach simple words to.

 

"All of it," Kurt gestures to the entire Calculus textbook in front of him, looking over at his study guide, which might as well have been written in Greek with how much Kurt truly understood it. Kurt can see Blaine trying to hold in his laughter, but his shaking shoulders honestly give him away.

 

"Stop laughing at me. OSD didn't have pre-calculus like you have here," Kurt isn't ashamed to say he might have pouted a little. Okay, he's a little bit ashamed at it but Blaine doesn't make fun of him for it. Instead, he pulls the study guide closer to the two of them, and starts to slowly help him understand topics that Kurt had only a week to truly remember.

 

A flash out of the corner of his eye draws his attention away from the current formula Blaine was writing down on the study guide for him. Kurt pushes himself off the ground, his butt a little numb from the ground if he's being honest, and grabs his phone. Looking down, he sees a text in the group chat between Trevor and Paige at OSD.

 

_I can't believe the theme is Winter Wonderland. What a cliche!_ Paige had texted. Kurt looks at his phone, confused for a moment about what she's talking about before understanding dawns on him. It's time for the annual winter dance, a tradition at OSD for the high school age kids. The three of them talked about going all out for the three senior year dances: homecoming, prom, and the winter formal. Of course, even though Kurt isn't at OSD, it doesn't mean that Trevor and Paige wouldn't go.

 

Kurt jumps when he feels Blaine lay a hand on his shoulder. He wasn't even aware of him getting up from the floor. He looks up from his phone, trying not to seem too upset at missing yet another thing he was looking forwards to with his friends.

 

"What's wrong?" Blaine asks, looking concerned. Kurt shrugs, trying to pass it off as something that wasn't that important. But the reality was, it is. He misses his friends. He really, really does. Texting and FaceTiming isn't nowhere near the level of connection that meeting face to face was. And yeah, Blaine was turning out to be a pretty awesome friend, but sometimes, it sucked having to remind himself to slow his signing down because Blaine doesn't understand.

 

"Kurt, seriously, what's wrong," Blaine repeats, knowing Kurt well enough from the couple months of knowing him that the shoulder shrug meant nothing. Kurt sighs, setting his phone back down on the table and failing to ignore the flashing lights signaling another notification.

 

"At my old school, each year we would have a winter dance," Kurt slowly signs, pausing to make sure that Blaine understood what he was saying before he continued. Blaine nods, and Kurt continues. "My friends and I, we looked forward to our senior year for so long, because the three of us would be together. Now, I guess I'm just realizing all the things I'm missing out on with them," Kurt signs. Blaine looks confused, obviously not understanding several portions of his signing, but Kurt was too upset to want to go back and make it clearer for him. A little douchey, he knows, but right now he just wants things to go back to normal.

 

"Can't you go to the dance anyways?" Blaine asks, his head tilted slightly to the side. Kurt sighs, what he's sure is loudly based on how much air he exhales too.

 

"It's not just that. I miss my old life, the life I had before I came to McKinley. And yeah, you've been an amazing friend these past couple months, but sometimes, I wish my Dad had never enrolled me in McKinley," Kurt signs, watching Blaine's face concentrating hard on his hands.

 

"Do things really suck that bad?" Blaine asks, a look of sadness on his face. Kurt glances down at the floor, not wanting to look at Blaine and the sadness in his eyes at that moment.

 

"Sometimes," Kurt signs. Blaine doesn't sign anything back at that moment, but he does reach forward and grab Kurt's shoulder.

 

"I don't know how to make this better for you, Kurt," Blaine signs honestly. Kurt smiles sadly, reaching up and patting the top of Blaine's hand.

 

"It's okay," Kurt shrugs, knowing that he didn't mean to get Blaine upset at all. The words honestly just kind of poured out of him, he never really planned to let Blaine know how much he missed his life at OSD.

 

"I think you should go to the dance though," Blaine signs. At least, that's what Kurt thinks he means. He didn't know the sign for dance, so he just kind of shimmied his shoulders. At Kurt's confused look, Blaine says the word dance out loud, and Kurt nods his understanding and shows him the simple sign. Blaine repeats his sentence, this time using the correct sign.

 

"Why?" Kurt asks, curious as to why Blaine thinks that seeing all that will make him feel better. In fact, he's pretty sure that it will only make him miss it more.

 

"I think it will be good for you. You'll see everybody you know again, and have fun, and it'll help you get through until next year and you go to Gallaudet with your friends," Blaine explains. Kurt stands there, motionless for several moments.

 

"I think you're right," Kurt slowly signs, thinking about what he might do when he sees the school once again. And he's pretty sure that OSD lets students bring guests to the winter formal, so it shouldn't be too big of an issue.

 

"I'm always right," Blaine jokes, smirking crookedly. Kurt rolls his eyes, watching Blaine's shoulders shake as he laughs. Kurt turns to grab his phone, but stops and looks back at Blaine.

 

"You should come with me," Kurt signs. Blaine looks at him confused, so Kurt signs it again, slower.

"Wait, what? Why?" Blaine asks. Kurt smiles reassuringly.

 

"Why not? Besides, Trevor and Paige want to meet you," Kurt signs. Blaine looks at him worriedly, and with a little bit of fear. Kurt hopes he agrees to go though, because while it's true, Trevor and Paige did want to meet the hearing boy that Kurt's been spending so much time with, Kurt wants Blaine to come because, well, he loves hanging out with him. Blaine and him have gotten as close as they possibly can, even with the language barrier between them. Which sucked by the way and Blaine was trying very hard to figure a way around it, but the two of them hang out practically every minute of the day. When Blaine finishes with glee, they typically head to the Lima Bean and do their homework while drinking coffee, talking and Kurt teaching Blaine different nuances to sign language he wouldn't have learned just by learning on his own.

 

"They probably are going to hate me. I'm not good enough at signing to follow your guy's conversations. I'd just be a buzz kill," Blaine speaks, signing a little bit but most rambling in the way he does when he's either A: nervous or B: scared. Which right now it looked like a little bit of both.

 

"What better way to learn than to jump right in on a bunch of teenager signing all over the place. It'll be fun," Kurt signs. Blaine sighs, looking defeated. Kurt was already celebrating before he even started signing.

 

"Fine," Blaine states, unable not to watch while Kurt grinned and grabbed his phone, texting Trevor and Paige to plan on two extra people gate crashing the party. Which prompted a whole lot of smiley face emojis from Paige.

 

"Now, where were we?" Kurt sets his phone down and asks. Blaine chuckles, gesturing back towards their previous spot on the floor.

 

"I believe I was teaching you everything you need to know about Calculus," Blaine signs. Kurt rolls his eyes as he walks forward and retakes his seat, pulling up his study guide which still looked like Greek to him. Except for that one equation, he might actually get that. Hey, maybe he was getting this!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap. I actually updated this? Sorry for the long update period, I had no inspiration at all for writing this, and then I started with Siren, and had a long writer block period. I sound like a broken record for excuses, so I apologize. Fair warning though, sporadic updates will probably be the norm coming up here. I'm leaving for college in a couple weeks, and I'm playing soccer down there so I'll be crazy busy playing and traveling. But I promise this will not get abandoned. It may take forever to update and finish, but I'll find a way to finish it, I promise!


	7. Meeting the In-Laws.... Or in Other Words: Meeting Paige and Trevor

How does one dress when going to a winter dance with your best friends you've known forever, and the new best friend you've been hanging out pretty much every single day since knowing him? 

 

This was the dilemma Kurt was stuck with. His closet door stood open, clothes shoved to the side as he struggled to piece together an outfit worthy of being seen. The winter formal was that, a formal dance, so his skin tight skinny jeans were out because there was no way Kurt Hummel would show up to a formal dance in jeans. Some guys could, and would, do that, but Kurt had no intention of being one of those. 

 

So, the black pants then. He pulls that out, as well as a long sleeve white collared shirt. He searched around for a while more, before finally seeing the vest that was right in front of his face the entire time. A black stripped button up, that he would wear over the white shirt. And finally, to top it off, a white dotted scarf. 

 

Perfect. 

 

After taking longer than he thought planning the outfit together, Kurt finally lets himself go about his nightly regime, hanging the outfit up so it didn't wrinkle on his bed. Sleep however, seemed impossible. Kurt was nervous, he didn't know how his friends would react to Blaine, nor how Blaine would react to suddenly being the minority. Sure, hearing people sometimes came to the dances as dates, but Kurt would always watch them, and notice how out of place they seemed. Their signing was just a little off, marking them different from the rest, they weren't as smooth or fluid or relaxed as natural Deaf signers. And Blaine always tried so hard to be perfect, his signing reflected that as well. Still, Kurt believed this would help him out in the long run, especially should the two continue to be close friends. 

 

The next day, Kurt anxiously awaited Blaine's arrival. Blaine would be driving to Kurt's house, and the two of them would drive down to OSD together. Burt was sitting in the living room, trying to casually watch the television but failing. He kept seeing Kurt pacing out of the corner of his eye. 

 

"Kurt, calm down," Burt finally gets his son's attention, and Kurt turns to him before signing worriedly. 

 

"I'm just nervous about tonight," he signs back. Burt reaches over and grabs the remote, pausing the tv so he can focus his attention on his son, who was currently freaking out about what Burt perceived as nothing. 

 

"Why? Are you worried Trevor and Paige won't like the kid?" Burt guesses, but that seems to only make it worse as Kurt's face suddenly becomes even more worried. 

 

"I didn't even think about that. Oh my god they probably will hate him. I should just call and cancel, that would be best for everyone-" Burt watches Kurt continue to ramble away, before doing something he only does when Kurt goes on a tangent like this. He throws the nearest pillow at his son, who immediately stops signing and turns to his dad. 

 

"Seriously? You know how rude that is, right?" Kurt signs to his father. Burt shrugs, looking over at his son. 

 

"You weren't paying attention to me. Relax, kid. It's pretty much impossible to hate Blaine, he's too charming. Believe me, I tried," Burt chuckles, and Kurt cracks a smile at remembering the day he introduced his father to Blaine. Burt tried his hardest to scare the pants off the kid, but Blaine was his charming self and wooed Burt over within ten minutes of their conversation, terrible signing skills be damned. 

 

"What are you worried about?" Burt asks, seeing as the last time he tried to guess what was going on in Kurt's head resulted in making it worse. Kurt sighs deeply, and finally takes a seat on the other side of the couch. 

 

"I'm worried Blaine will get there and realize how much work trying to sign is, and realize being friends with me isn't worth the extra work," Kurt admits. Burt smiles reassuringly at his son. 

 

"I think the kid would have realized that by now. He's learning a whole other language to be friends with you. I think that says something," Burt signs, watching as his son visibly relaxes at his words. Kurt nods, but says nothing else. Instead, he reaches into his back pocket for his phone. 

 

"Blaine's here," Kurt signs, and moments later the doorbell rings and lights flicker. Kurt gets up off the couch and opens the door, where Blaine stood smiling. He was wearing classic black pants paired with a matching jacket. His black bow tie stood out against the white button up shirt, and he started excitedly signing the minute Kurt waved hello. 

 

"You ready? Because I'm excited to see your old school," he hurriedly signs, making Kurt almost laugh at his enthusiasm. Because Blaine signs that fast only when he's nervous or excited, which right now the scale is definitely leaning towards the excitement side. 

 

"It's not that impressive," Kurt signs back. Blaine shrugs, and looks over Kurt's shoulder and waves hello to Burt. 

 

"Hi, Burt!" Blaine signs, and Burt steps up behind his son and lays one hand on Kurt's shoulder. 

 

"Hello," Burt signs back. Kurt turns to look over his shoulder at his father. 

 

"We will be back late, I'll text you when we are leaving," Kurt signs. Burt nods his understanding, and Kurt reaches for the night side table to grab his wallet. 

 

"Have fun, boys!" Burt waves goodbye, and Kurt waves back with the _I love you_ sign as the two of them leave. 

 

The two of them spend most of the trip in silence, which Kurt always does but he means silence in the fact that neither of them signs. It was mostly because Blaine freaks out anytime Kurt looks away from the road to see what he's signing, but there was palpable nervousness in the air between the two. When Kurt pulls into the parking lot of his old school, he turns to Blaine, who's illuminated by the glow of the streetlights. 

 

"Any last words of advice?" Blaine signs, his fast signing now tipping more onto the nervousness spectrum rather than the excitement it was back at Kurt's house. Kurt smiles, trying to reassure him that he has no need to be nervous despite his own nerves at the moment. 

 

"Have fun?" He suggests. Blaine laughs, and it's a noticeable difference in his posture. He's less stiff, more relaxed, and walks easily besides him as the two of them head towards the gymnasium of his old school. Kurt sees old classmates, who all immediately wave hello and it takes a long time just to get into the gym because everybody wants to know where he's been and who's with him and why he had to leave. Kurt watches Blaine trying to follow along out of the corner of his eye, but he knows he's signing way too fast for him to ever try to keep up and before he can feel guilty about practically forgetting about him in the excitement of seeing his old friends, he spots Trevor and Paige. 

 

Blaine jumps, probably at the scream Paige releases when she sees them. Kurt can't tell, obviously, but he has a pretty good feeling that she yelled pretty loud, considering the looks they are getting from the few hearing staff. She sprints towards him, tackling him and Kurt barely manages to stay upright at the force of her hug. He smiles, so happy to finally be able to hug his best friend in person. Sure, they've been talking on FaceTime and everything, but it's nowhere near the same thing as seeing each other in person. 

 

Paige finally lets him go, and Kurt turns to hug Trevor. Then, he pulls back and smiles widely at his best friends. 

 

"Paige, Trevor, this is Blaine. He's still learning, so can you guys please remember to sign slower?" He asks. The two of them turn towards Blaine, who smiles nervously and Kurt can make out a slight blush as he tells them it's nice to meet them. 

 

"You didn't tell us he was cute, Kurt!" Paige immediately signs. Kurt blushes and Blaine's blush increases at her signs. Trevor and Paige laugh at their reactions, and Paige turns back to Blaine. 

 

"It's nice to meet you, Blaine. How'd you meet Kurt?" She asks. Kurt fights back the groan that rises, he should have known that they would go into detective mode the minute they meet Blaine. 

 

"We bumped into each other in the hallway at McKinley. He looked lonely, so I figured I'd learn sign and become his friend," Blaine explains, and Kurt smiles while Paige visible awwws. He rolls his eyes at her reaction, and begins pulling her arm towards the gymnasium door. He can already feel the faint vibrations of the music inside, and he's ready to start dancing with his friends. 

 

"Come on, I came here to dance and dance we will," Kurt signs. Paige grins, hooking her arm in Kurt's as they enter the line outside the door. Trevor and Paige quickly sign both Kurt and Blaine in as their guests, and they hand over the money and hands get stamped and then they are inside. 

 

"You're right. The theme is totally tacky," he signs to Paige. Inside, the gym is decorated with snowflakes and fake snowmen, and it's all completely cliche. If he wasn't here to have a good time, these decorations would certainly put a damper in his last winter formal dance with his friends. 

 

"I know, right! They announced the theme and both me and Trevor immediately thought of what you would say," she signs. Kurt grins, turning back towards Trevor and Blaine, who were walking just a little behind the two of them. Trevor stops signing when he notices Blaine's attention is not on him anymore, and looks up to see Kurt's looking at the two of them. 

 

"You okay?" Kurt asks. Blaine grins, and looks around the gym. 

 

"It's really loud," he remarks. The other three laugh, and Blaine blushes as he realizes what he said in the current company. Before he can start signing again, Trevor interrupts. 

 

"It needs to be so we can feel the vibrations," he explains. He points to the dance clump, where everybody has taken off their shoes as to better feel the vibrations through the floor. Blaine nods, understanding and the four of them take off their shoes and join the clump. They worm their way into the middle, where they have to squish and probably step on at least ten random feet, but they're dancing to the beat and everybody's having a good time. Kurt watches Blaine, who he notices is mouthing along with the lyrics, probably subconsciously because when he notices Kurt watching, he stops with a blush. 

 

"Sorry," he signs. Kurt grins, quickly shaking his head. 

 

"Don't be. Nobody's judging," he reassures. Blaine doesn't start mouthing along again, but Kurt can feel the beat change, and Blaine's face lights up. 

 

"Oh I love this song," he signs, and Kurt laughs as Blaine's dancing gets more energetic, laughing as he grabs his hand and the two of them dance together. Blaine starts to sing along again, and Kurt makes out some of the lyrics before he recognizes the song. He laughs more than he has in a while, and the four of them dance until they feel the beat change a couple more times, finally getting out of the dance floor and heading towards the drinks. 

 

Blaine hands Kurt a cup of water, which he takes gratefully. He can feel the sweat dripping down his forehead, and sees all of them are sweaty from dancing so hard. Paige grabs Blaine and the two of them start talking, Kurt watches their conversation smiling. Out of any of them, he knew Paige would be more sympathetic to Blaine's shaky sign language, having only learned the language herself a couple years ago after she transferred to OSD. Obviously, she picked it up quickly, but there's obvious differences in the fluency and gracefulness of her signing versus Trevor or Kurt's. Kurt feels a tap on his shoulder, and he turns to see Trevor getting his attention. 

 

"It's really good to see you again," Trevor signs, at his normal speed now that Blaine isn't watching. Kurt grins, the relief he feels inside of him at seeing his friends again must be shared with them. 

 

"I know. I missed you guys," he tells him. Trevor glances over at Blaine, who's laughing along with Paige. 

 

"He seems nice," Trevor says. Kurt nods, his grin widening at the subject of Blaine. 

 

"I know. I never expected someone to learn my language just to become friends with me at McKinley. He's obviously still learning, but he's miles ahead of where he was just a couple months ago," Kurt says, watching Trevor looking at him with that knowing look that Kurt sometimes hates so much. 

 

"You like him, don't you?" He asks, and Kurt glances momentarily back at Blaine, unable not to at the question. Of course Kurt likes Blaine. What's not to like there? He's funny, he's incredibly kind, and he went out of his way to learn a whole new language just to be friends with Kurt. And it doesn't hurt that he's incredibly attractive, but it's not just his outward appearance that's beautiful, his heart is too. 

 

"Yeah, I do. But we're just friends," Kurt signs, turning back to Trevor. Trevor raises an eyebrow, mirroring Kurt who did that pretty much every day since meeting Paige three years ago.

 

"He likes you too. I just met the guy but it's plainly obvious. He's not good at hiding what he's thinking," Trevor says. Kurt shakes his head quickly. 

 

"Not like that. I told you, we're just friends. Besides, he's going to New York next year and I'm going to Gallaudet with you guys," he says. 

 

"Washington and New York aren't that far from each other," he signs. Kurt doesn't say anything back, instead choosing to turn back towards Blaine and Paige, their conversation is still going. He tries not to eavesdrop, but Blaine catches his gaze and smiles widely. Kurt can't help but smile back, even after talking with Trevor. Yeah, he knows that his hopeless crush on Blaine will forever remain hopeless, but he can't help but feel butterflies in his stomach with he smiles at him like that. 

 

"You want to dance again?" Blaine asks. Kurt nods, letting Blaine grab his hand and pull him towards the dance floor. Paige and Trevor don't follow, and Kurt enjoys the time alone with his hearing best friend. 

 

The night ends far too soon, the dance ending at eleven. Trevor invites him and Blaine to some afterparties that he's sure the faculty must know is going on, but they decline on the fact that they have to drive back to Lima. Kurt hugs both of them, and he lingers for a while, talking about classes and things that mean nothing, but it delays the fact that he's leaving what he once thought was his safe haven away from the ignorance of the hearing world. But eventually, they've delayed leaving by thirty minutes and he really needs to leave in order to make curfew. So with a heavy heart, he says goodbye and sets up the next FaceTime chat with the two of them, then Blaine and him head out. They once again drive home in silence, not having the light in order to clearly see each other. 

 

They reach Kurt's driveway, and he turns towards Blaine. He clicks on the car light, illuminating the interior in order to talk with Blaine before he leaves for his own house. 

 

"Did you have fun?" Kurt asks. Blaine grins and nods quickly. 

 

"I did. Your friends are amazing, I can see why you latched onto them so quickly. Paige is very energetic," Blaine laughs, causing Kurt to laugh along and smile as he continues signing quickly, his excitement at the night not over. "Trevor is really cool too. I can tell they slowed their signing down for me, which I appreciate. But they didn't really seem annoyed by it. That was my biggest fear of the night," he continues. Kurt nods, and when Blaine pauses, he jumps into the conversation. 

 

"Me too. I was worried you wouldn't understand a lot and that would ruin your night. I really wanted you to have fun with my friends," he tells him. Blaine nods, still grinning which makes Kurt's heart lighten at the absolute joy on his face. 

 

"I struggled a bit, but I learned so much and everyone was so nice," Blaine is still signing fast, it's still choppy but his excitement and happiness is contagious and Kurt couldn't care less that his signing isn't perfect, as long as he continues to be that happy. 

 

"I'm glad," he signs. Blaine looks at the time on his phone, and then back at Kurt. He knows what Blaine's going to say before he even starts signing, but it still doesn't stop the disappointment at the fact that the night is coming to an end. 

 

"I have to go home," Blaine signs. Kurt nods, and Blaine gives him one last smile before heading out of the car. He watches as Blaine enters his own car and drives away. Kurt finally walks into his house, careful to be quiet because he knows everyone else is asleep. He lays on his bed after he changes into pajamas, looking up at the ceiling. 

 

It was amazing being with Blaine all night, with his other friends. He can't help thinking about how happy Blaine looked, how much fun it was to be able to dance with him. It doesn't help his crush on the hearing boy, it only makes it stronger. He can't help but think about what Trevor said, that he thought Blaine liked him back. But that's impossible, Blaine was his friend. He was his best friend and that's all that they would be. Because while he did learn sign language, he was never going to want to be with Kurt with anything other than friendship. 

 

He sighs, unable to stop thinking. His phone flashes with a text, and he rolls over and grabs it off his nightstand. He smiles when he reads the text from Blaine. 

 

_Hey! Just got home. I wanted to say thank you for bringing me tonight, it was fun watching you in your element with your friends. Goodnight! :D_

 

He rolls his eyes at the use of the emoticon, but can't help the warm feeling that spreads in his chest. 

 

_I had fun too. Thank you for coming with me. Goodnight, Blaine._

 

He plugs his phone in and turns over, smiling even as he falls asleep with the memories of Blaine laughing all night. 


	8. Facing the Truth

One positive to not being stuck in a dorm room at OSD was the ability to have his sewing machine. Kurt has always loved sewing and designing, and OSD had a stupid ban on the types of machines they are allowed to bring with them, and sewing machines fell in the banned category. So even though it _sucked_ not spending senior year at his deaf school, it was nice to be able to actually make the designs that covered the pages in the numerous sketchbooks Kurt always had laid out. 

 

He was currently pinning fabric onto the dress mannequin, making a jacket for himself, when the lights to his room flickered on and off. The room lights were connected to the doorbell outside his room, installed when they all moved into the new house together. Finn asked for a lock on his door, gaining the ability to have privacy, and when he was granted that, Kurt asked for the doorbell. That way, he could close his own door and if someone needed to get in, well, they obviously couldn't knock on the door like they do if Finn's door is closed. So he pins the last scrap of fabric in place and opens his door, expecting it to be his dad or maybe Carole. 

 

Instead, Blaine stands there with a grin, his book bag on his shoulder and Kurt looks at him momentarily confused. 

 

"What are you doing here?" Kurt sighs, watching as Blaine stands there, confusion crossing onto his face before obvious understanding. 

 

"You forgot, didn't you?" Blaine asks. 

 

"No," Kurt obviously lies, and he watches as Blaine laughs. Kurt moves aside to let Blaine into the room, and Blaine drops his bag on the floor by his bed before turning to him. 

 

"Homework? You said earlier that I could come over and we'd do our homework together. Then we'd go to the Lima Bean?" Blaine tells him. Quickly, Kurt remembers signing with Blaine during lunch earlier that day, making plans for Blaine to come over to work on homework after glee practice. 

 

"Oh yeah, sorry, I was working on something," Kurt explains, blushing as Blaine looks over at the mannequin with the unfinished jacket. Kurt tries to move the mannequin back into the corner of his closet where it usually hangs out, embarrassed that he not only completely forgot about Blaine coming over, but also about the fact that he got so caught up in working on his silly design hobby that he didn't realize Blaine was coming. 

 

"Did you make that?" Blaine asks when Kurt turns around again. He feels his cheeks stay warm, unable to meet Blaine's gaze, but having to look at him anyways in order to communicate properly. 

 

"Yeah. It's something I do for fun, sorry," Kurt quickly explains. Blaine looks at his desk, where Kurt has numerous design sketchbooks spread around, as well as various clippings of fabrics and sewing instruments that he usually has time to put away before having company over. 

 

"Don't be sorry, Kurt. You're good," Blaine states. Kurt shrugs off the compliment, gathering up the instruments and carefully putting them away in their respective drawers. Kurt feels Blaine grab his shoulder, making him look back over at him. Blaine has gotten off his spot on Kurt's bed, and currently stood behind him. 

 

"I'm serious. Do you ever wear the stuff you design?" Blaine asks. Kurt nods, and Blaine again looks at him with eyes wide in surprise. 

 

"You realize everybody thinks you're wearing some famous designer's clothing, and you're telling me that it's your own stuff?" He asks. Again, Kurt nods, feeling the blush creep from his cheeks down to the back of his neck, and he knows that he looks like a cherry red tomato right now. 

 

"You are seriously amazing, Kurt. Have you ever thought about majoring in fashion design?" Kurt shrugs, looking at his sketchbooks, avoiding Blaine's eyes. Because, in truth, he has. Fashion was one of the things that he always loved, and in his good moments, he thinks he's pretty damn good at it. However, it's already so hard to make a name for yourself in that industry, not to mention that being Deaf will just make it even harder for him, that he's spent the better part of the last couple years convincing himself that Gallaudet will be the best place for him. 

 

"Gallaudet doesn't have a fashion design major," Kurt signs, looking over at Blaine and hoping that his shrug just says something like _oh well._

 

"But have you thought about going to another school? One with a design major?" Blaine asks. Kurt immediately glares at him, anger and something else welling up inside of him that he knows what the emotion is, but doesn't want to admit it. So he lets the anger overpower the other emotions so he doesn't have to think about it. 

 

"Other schools aren't an option for me," Kurt signs crisply, hoping beyond hope that Blaine will drop the subject when he sees how tense his shoulders are getting. But obviously Blaine doesn't know Kurt's nuances very well because he continues to sign, acting like he has some sort of idea about what Kurt can do with his life. 

 

"Just because you're Deaf doesn't mean you _have_ to go to Gallaudet. I'm sure there are plenty of colleges that can make accommodations for you--"

 

"That's the point! I don't want people to have to make accommodations. I don't want to be a burden to some poor hearing college that only accepted me to get money for their disability programs," Kurt twists his face in mock sincerity, watching as Blaine gets more and more confused. 

 

"Why are you getting upset, Kurt? I'm trying to help," Blaine asks. And that just makes Kurt see red. He knows, he _knows,_ Blaine doesn't mean it like that, like he's some poor little Deaf boy who needs every little thing in the world done for him. But the anger was already there, and seeing Blaine sign _that_  just makes the dam burst and all the anger at every single hearing person who's ever done anything wrong towards him just jumps into Kurt's hands and Blaine is the unfortunate recipient. 

 

"I don't think I asked for your help, Blaine. Or maybe you forgot that because you're hearing,  you have to baby me in everything I do. Because god forbid a Deaf person can do anything on their own. I'm surprised I managed to make it to the bathroom without my dad holding my hand," Kurt's aware of Blaine's confused face, probably because he's reverted back to the speed he signs with other natural deaf signers, and while Blaine has gotten really good, the speed and sharpness that Kurt is signing probably means he's only getting about every third word or so, and _god_ , doesn't that just make him angrier _._

 

"I'm sick and tired of all you hearing people thinking you're better than me just because you can hear. I'm done with the looks from everybody whenever they see me signing, I'm done with everybody always asking me how I can live without my hearing. I'm done with McKinley, and I'm done with you," Kurt finishes, glaring harshly at Blaine, who's face grows increasingly more hurt with every sign Kurt throws his way. Finally, Blaine's hurt face narrows and he glares at Kurt. 

 

"I don't know why you decided I was suddenly the bad guy here when I've been learning a whole new language just to communicate with you," Blaine signs, and Kurt can't help it, he can't help noticing how much faster Trevor signing that would be. How slow Blaine still was compared to his friends at OSD. He knows internally it's not fair to compare, and Blaine has gotten so good so fast, but he's caught up in his anger and Kurt can't help what comes next.

 

"Oh wow, do you want a congratulations? Great job! You're making friends with the dumb Deaf kid who doesn't talk, you deserve a medal. You want one, I think I could make you one if you wanted," Kurt moves to mockingly search around his desk, practically shaking as Blaine quickly signs back. 

 

"Shut up, Kurt! I don't know why you're so pissed at me, but I'm done being the bad guy. Text me when you get your head out of your ass and are ready to apologize," he signs, immediately grabbing his bag and walking to the door. And Kurt can't even sign anything back to get the last word because Blaine is already walking out of his room, and if he was hearing or used his voice, he would totally yell something at him as he walked away. But he wasn't hearing, and he didn't voice, and Blaine _knew_ it and the fact that he walked away, and maybe he didn't even mean to do it, but he did it and Kurt couldn't get the last word in just pissed him off even further. 

 

The first time the doorbell rings again, Kurt flings the door open, fully expecting it to be Blaine coming back. Instead, it's Finn, who asked why Kurt slammed the door so loud. 

 

"I was trying to see if I could hear again if I slammed it loud enough," Kurt angrily signs back before shoving the door closed with more force than necessary, probably resulting in the door literally slamming in Finn's face. Oh well, not like he could hear it. 

 

The second time, it was his dad. He was relatively calmer then, but still brewing with anger that the more rational side of himself knew he had no business feeling. But he wasn't thinking with the rational side of himself. So he slammed the door again in his dad's face, surprisingly satisfied at the feeling of the vibrations on the floor. 

 

He went back to working on the jacket that started it all, but when he pulled out the mannequin, he couldn't concentrate enough and eventually shoved it back into his closet, letting out a frustrated noise that he could feel in his throat, which just made all the anger well up again. The rational side told him he was acting like a three year old throwing a tempter tantrum, but like he recognized earlier, he wasn't thinking with the rational side just yet. 

 

A couple days after the fight is when Kurt realizes he really should admit to himself what that other emotion was. He knew the day after that he really wasn't angry at Blaine. He just used the anger in order to ignore the fear he felt at knowing Blaine was right. Because Blaine _was_ right, he doesn't have to go to Gallaudet. It's just, that's all that he, Paige, and Trevor had talked about since sophomore year and they had to start thinking about what they wanted to do for college. 

 

Paige wanted to become a social worker. She wanted to council families like hers and give them more options than the ones doctors shove down parent's throats whenever they have a Deaf child. Trevor was going to become a teacher, teaching the future Deaf children and inspiring them to gain more ground for Deaf people. And Kurt, well, Kurt didn't really know what he wanted to do. Well, he knew what he wanted, but he knew he couldn't do it at Gallaudet. 

 

But admitting that, admitting that he had more options that the ones he had planned for years, that was too scary to admit. 

 

So, it took about a week until Kurt was finally ready to admit he was wrong. He drafted about ten different text messages to Blaine until he finally sent a simple apology. 

 

**I'm sorry. Lima Bean for coffee and an explanation?** He sends the text in the morning the weekend after the first week of their fight, and it takes a couple hours for Blaine to respond back. During which time Kurt thinks for sure his stupidness caused him to lose one of the best friends he's ever had. 

 

**You're buying.** Blaine finally responds back, and Kurt practically dives for his phone on the desk when he saw the flashing light. He quickly reads the text and lets out a relieved smile. 

 

**See you there in fifteen.** Kurt texts, and he waits for Blaine's response text before quickly grabbing his shoes and coat, throwing his wallet into the pocket and heading downstairs for his keys. There was nobody in the house to let know he was leaving, so after getting his keys he quickly drove to the coffee shop. He spied Blaine's familiar car and parked next to it, heading inside the coffee shop. Once inside, he quickly spotted Blaine, sitting in their normal table and looking right at him. Kurt smiles hesitantly, walking over and sitting down wordlessly. 

 

"I'm sorry," he immediately signs. Blaine nods, but doesn't sign anything back, so Kurt sighs and continues signing. 

 

"I was stupid. I shouldn't have yelled at you, and you didn't deserve it. You're an amazing friend, Blaine. And I hope you realize how much I appreciate the effort you've been going through for me, because I don't think I've ever said thank you before," Kurt signs, watching as Blaine's tough demeanor soften and he eventually looks surprised when Kurt signs thank you to him. 

 

"You've learned years of sign language in a little over five months, just because you wanted to be friends with me. And I'm a selfish bastard who hasn't even said thank you," Kurt finishes. Blaine continues to look surprised, and Kurt smiles. 

 

"You don't have to say thank you. You're an amazing friend too, Kurt. And I'm glad that we're friends," Blaine signs. Kurt's smile widens, and he gestures towards the coffee counter. 

 

"I believe I'm buying you a drink. Then we can go back to my house and I'll give you that explanation I owe you," Kurt states. Blaine grins, and leads the way as the two get in line. They spend the short wait catching up on the things they've missed in each other's lives the past week, and Kurt's surprised and yet not by how much he's missed talking with Blaine. He's always known the two of them could talk for hours and not get bored, so to be separated for an entire week, he could have talked with Blaine forever. But the line was short, and they did need coffee, and Blaine did deserve to understand why Kurt blew up on him like that. So they quickly get their coffees and get in their separate cars, driving the short distance to Kurt's house. 

 

Once inside, they sit in the living room, on opposite sides of the couch and facing one another. They lean back against the armrests, stretching their legs out on the couch, Kurt's against the back of the couch while Blaine lays his against Kurt's so they don't fall off. Kurt smiles at the ease in which they settled down again, despite the fight they just had. Then he looks up at Blaine and his eyebrows are raised in an almost identical fashion in the way Kurt does and he knows he needs to start signing. 

 

"Okay. So, remember when you were asking if I ever thought about going to school for fashion design, and I told you Gallaudet didn't have a major for that?" Kurt asks. Blaine nods, and he continues. 

 

"Well, when you said that, I was scared. I love designing, but I've always though of it as just something I was good at, not something I could really do. But a year ago, one of my old teachers saw one of my sketchbooks, and mentioned some different design colleges I could put on my radar. I shot her down immediately, stating I was going to Gallaudet with Paige and Trevor, but it stuck with me. I thought about it, but I was terrified. I'm still scared. Because I've been talking about Gallaudet since sophomore year. It's just so nice having a school that's just for people like you, everyone speaks the same language you do, and you don't have to worry about things like interpreters or language barriers. It's easy. You still following?" Kurt asks, realizing he's starting to ramble a little and when he rambles he signs faster. But Blaine nods, and so Kurt keeps signing. 

 

"It's easy to go along with easy. Easy is nice, easy is good. But, you said what you said last week, and it brought up all the thoughts and fears I have and instead of facing them head on, I got angry and twisted everything and ended up picking a fight with you. And you didn't deserve that, so for that, I'm sorry," Kurt finishes. Blaine reaches down and grabs Kurt's socked foot, squeezing it in an imitation of what he would do if he was holding his hand. 

 

"You were scared, it's okay," Blaine smiles reassuringly, and Kurt lets that reassurance settle deep in his heart, because he needs it for what he's about to say. 

 

"I'm scared now. And I think I know why. I got so angry last week because I knew you were right. Gallaudet is easy, but it doesn't have what I want to do with my life. I realize that I want to be a designer, I want to make clothes, I want people to wear them, I want to know that people are out there, wearing my designs at that very moment. And what really terrifies me, is I'm scared I'm not good enough,"  Kurt finishes, looking down at his lap, unable to look at Blaine when he's just finished breaking down the careful walls he painstakingly built and let someone else see how he's really just a vulnerable shell inside. Kurt feels Blaine grab his foot again, holding on until he looks up and see Blaine staring at him intensely. 

 

"We're all scared we aren't good enough, Kurt. I'm terrified about New York next year, thinking about being in that city, trying to make it on Broadway along with thousands of others like me. It terrifies me because I think I can't be good enough, other people are so much more talented than I am. But Kurt, sometimes it's harder to listen to other people say good things when we're telling ourselves all the bad. So I want you to watch me carefully, and believe me, because I'm saying this out of the bottom of my heart, and I want you to know that I believe what I'm about to say with every part of me. You are amazing, and if anyone can do it, it's you," Blaine signs carefully. Kurt smiles as he watches him sign, and he momentarily regrets laying down like they are because it means that he can't reach over and give Blaine a hug without both of them awkwardly bending. So he settles for laying a hand on Blaine's shin, just needing to touch some part of Blaine after what he just said. 

 

Because yeah, he's terrified. He's scared he's not good enough, he's scared about getting rejected, he's scared he won't be able to prove himself as something worthy. But as he lays there, he realizes something. As long as he has Blaine in his life, he thinks he'll be okay.  

 


End file.
